A visual album by American singer Frank Ocean serenades the construction of a spiraling "staircase to heaven" inside a warehouse.A visual album by American singer Frank Ocean serenades the construction of a spiraling "staircase to heaven" inside a warehouse.A visual album by American singer Frank Ocean serenades the construction of a spiraling "staircase to heaven" inside a warehouse.
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Did you know
- TriviaOn August 1, 2016, a live video hosted by Apple Music appeared on Frank Ocean's website, boysdontcry.co, broadcasting a vacant warehouse. In the following weeks, the black-and-white livestream depicted Ocean diligently working with wood & other materials to construct a spiral staircase, while sporadic loops of instrumental music played in the background. The video was revealed to be a promotion for 'Endless,' a 46-minute visual album released exclusively through Apple Music on August 19, 2016 (only a day before the release of Ocean's long-awaited album, 'Blonde,' previously known as 'Boys Don't Cry').
- Alternate versionsOn Cyber Monday, November 27, 2017, Blonded re-released Frank Ocean's 'Endless' in physical audio & visual formats, made available for purchase on their website, blonded.co. The limited reissue included a DVD & VHS release of the visual album and a remastered, 19-track CD & LP audio-only edition. The DVD & VHS are nearly identical to the original Apple Music release; however, the title sequence displayed at the film's end is altered, with notable differences in the album's track listings & credits. The DVD/VHS tracklist reveals the previously unlisted tracks "Xenons," "Walk Away" (otherwise known as the last 19 seconds of "Hublots"), and "Mitsu-Sony," while the songs Ambience 001: "In a Certain Way" and Ambience 002: "Honeybaby" are absent from the list. The CD & LP tracklist reveals the previously unlisted tracks "Xenons" & "Mitsubishi Sony," and omits Wolfgang Tillmans' opening performance of "Device Control" and its closing reprise. Additionally, some of the remastered tracks contain minor differences from their appearance in the film; the end of "Comme des Garçons" features vocals from Rita Zebdi, Ocean's wardrobe stylist for the visual album, and the closing instrumental section of "Mitsubishi Sony" extends for 1:05 longer on the CD & LP than in the film. Altogether, the 45:52 visual album is abridged to 38:27 for the audio-only releases.
- ConnectionsReferences Unplugged: Lauryn Hill: MTV Unplugged No. 2.0 (2002)
Featured review
Despite a beautiful score which starts off relatively indistinct but grows in scope and emotional magnitude throughout the 50 minute run time Endless is unable to remain entirely captivating throughout due to a stubborn and relatively uninventive approach to the visual element of the picture. It is set in an abandoned warehouse-come-woodshop-come-recording studio and starring numerous copies of Frank using heavy machinery. The direction & cinematography (by Frank) show an aptitude for visual art with a bold, highly contrasted B&W style that does look like it would fit in in the Tate Modern but given it's runtime the commitment to this style and visual theme does drag. Whilst musically it does not hold a torch to ChannelOrange or Blonde (which was released 5 days later and I assume a lot of the tracks were rejects from the double LP) there are some standouts particularly towards the end with the staircase sequence resembling Labyrinth's exceptional Euphoria 2018 score.
- Stargrazingreviews
- May 14, 2022
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- Runtime46 minutes
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